| 49 T T Virginia Wright Chips with a ‘proper’ taste Proper Crisps has the capacity to produce up to 50,000 packets of crisps a day. Proper Crisps “They were very passionate about only using real ingredients being made in the traditional way and as healthy as they could get it for what is still a fried potato chip.” REGIONAL DEVELOPMEN Proper Crisps Ltd was established in Nelson 14 years ago by an English couple when they were looking for a taste of home and couldn’t find a potato chip that fit the bill. They bought a small factory and started making Marlborough Sea Salt hand-cooked crisps, as close as they could get them to what they were used to back in the UK. “They were very passionate about only using real ingredients being made in the traditional way and as healthy as they could get it for what is still a fried potato chip,” explains brand manager Hayley Lewis, who’s been with Proper Crisps for nearly two years. After two years of rapid growth the business was bought by Ned and Mina Smith, who have recently retired. Ned had established and sold a successful bakery chain in the US before they relocated to Nelson, bought Proper Crisps, and put their food knowledge and experience to good use to grow the company to where it is now. “They’re both vegan, both passionate about food, and were both determined to continue the legacy of hand-cooking and using only real ingredients,” says Hayley. Ned and Mina brought their experience of new and interesting flavours back from travelling the world then turned them into innovative tastes for the New Zealand market, which invariably found their mark. Proper Crisps can now produce up to 50,000 packets of crisps a day, explains Hayley, and they still hand-cook everything. “We have all of the machinery you’d expect for our scale, but we also have people all the way across our production line: hand-cutting our potatoes, catching the potatoes that need extra peeling, taking out potatoes with defects; then we have our ‘proper chefs’ who stir our big kettles, and they have the expertise to tweak every batch for the perfect cook.” Quality control continues, with people monitoring the crisp conveyor belt to pull anything sub-standard off that manages to get that far, hence the company tag-line: “It’s harder for a crisp to make it into a bag of Proper than it is to make it out.” Proper Crisps have remained true to using golden potatoes, confident that they offer the best flavour a potato can give a chip, and they continue to avoid adding additives or preservatives. All the seasonings are made in-house from real ingredients you should be able to recognise from your pantry at home, albeit with a bit more sophistication in the way they might be used. Sticking to their principles clearly pays off as Proper Crisps have just won multiple awards in the Outstanding Food Producers Awards 2025. The two best-selling flavours, the original Marlborough Sea Salt, and Cider Vinegar, as well as their Kumara Crisps and their newest flavor, Chilli Crisp,s were all successful, clearly demonstrating that what began 14 years ago in a search for the taste of home has secured a place in pantries all over New Zealand. ojifs.com Proper Crisps Proudly supplying quality corrugated packaging to Packaging Southern | +64 3 547 5080 | case.si@ojifs.com
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDc2Mzg=